With AP tests all wrapped up, now comes a period of peace for students, no more flashcards or crazy long Quizlets. For Mr. Benson’s AP Lang class, that final stretch isn’t over yet. The upcoming weeks are reserved for the multi-page research paper. Must include 8 sources and be a document compiled of all the things we’ve learned throughout the year. The topics chosen are completely up to the writers, making it a looming big project, but something that gets students to delve deeper into topics they enjoy. “I’m a little scared, but I also like what I’m writing about, and so I think it will be one of the more fun projects,” Sabine Kenney said.
Mr. Benson teaches various types of writing styles throughout the school year. The class touches on analysis, argument, synthesis, and some smaller categories that ultimately slot into one of those styles. Choosing a synthesis paper for the final was fairly thought out and specifically chosen. “I love analyzing stuff, but that part of the brain is really only going to be applicable in very certain career types. Research papers, that’s going to hit a big majority of the kids I teach,” Benson said, “everybody’s got to argue, and everybody’s got to be able to cite other people when they argue, that’s just collegiate thinking.”
The course of AP Lang is a college credit class, meaning that the workload and content are college equivalent. The biggest difference is the time students take on each subject, having a whole year to run through the class, rather than a semester or quarter. So, with such a big paper with collegiate thinking involved in the writing process, it’s likely that it will be reused in future college classes, “I totally think I’m going to use mine again because I’m doing it based on one of the topics I’m interested in for college, so I think there’s a good likelihood I’ll use it again,” Esten Hubbard said.
The one tip Mr. Benson could give students, after much thought, was the idea of perfection and how you should let it go. Analyzing his class, he shares how his 4.0 perfectionist students are the most unhappy, stressed kids he teaches, “Let go of perfection. Y’all cling to it like it’s the only option. It’s not realistic, it’s not sustainable, it’s not healthy. Being content with who you are as a thinker and just working on growth instead of maintaining what you think is perfection is so much more beneficial,” Benson said.